Overview

It's hats off to women's right to vote! Thousands of law-abiding activists from around the country come together in a cheerful demonstration of popular support for women's suffrage. The celebratory mood of the gathering - and the unexpectedly large number of menfolk within it - may have as much to do with the presence of a newsreel cameraman as with women's constitutional rights.

This peaceful gathering in Hyde Park in July 1913 was the culmination of a mass march to London from numerous cities across the country organised by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) - a large and non-militant 'wing' of the women's suffrage movement led by Millicent Fawcett. The aim of the march was to counter the adverse publicity generated by the more militant and sensationalist activities of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and its leading members the Pankhursts, and to promote the 'constitutional' approach favoured by the NUWSS.